Tristan Peters spent a lot of time this offseason thinking about the paltry 12 hitless at-bats he got in his major league debut with Tampa last season. He's admitted he was sweating out the final roster cuts at the end of spring camp, expecting he might start in Triple-A.
But the part of his whirlwind last three months where public defensive metrics have him as one of the best center field defenders in the sport -- fifth in Outs Above Average (OAA) and sixth in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) among center fielders, tied for fifth by Statcast's score for outfield jumps -- Peters likes to keep tabs on it, in addition to the internal numbers the White Sox produce for his performance.
He's pleased, but don't put in the newspaper that he's surprised.
"I've always had high expectations for myself in the outfield," Peters said. "It's pretty cool to be up there, really cool to see that, especially because I always felt like I've had that in me."
The White Sox acquired Peters for a song when the Rays designated him for assignment last December, and clearly had Luisangel Acuña as their Plan A for a glove-first center fielder. But the coaching staff had the benefit of watching his defense up close all spring, where first base coach José Leger said Peters was a tireless worker on his pre-pitch movement, and insists the 26-year-old stabilizing the position with a .283/.343/.439 line is what deserves the surprise.
"I think on the offensive side he’s exceeded expectations more than defensively," said Will Venable. "Defensively he came in with a very strong reputation and the objective stuff captured that in the projections. I think it’s more on the offensive side, even though defensively, he’s performing obviously very well. Overall, we’re very happy with the way he’s exceeded expectations."
Maybe the Sox's projections loved Peters' glove. But up until the Rays allowed him to be their primary center fielder at Triple-A Durham last year, the last team to do so had been the Savannah Bananas back in 2021, and the Sox are Peters' fourth MLB organization. Peters thinks the progress on the mechanics of his pre-pitch move and first step burst began with just regular opportunity in center but have continued under the Sox emphasis on that element, as he's gotten a feel for landing a hair after the moment of contact, giving his eyes a split-second to read the ballflight.
But in his view as he came into the organization, knowing what he brought to the table defensively reduced the pressure Peters felt to hit enough to stay in Chicago. Even if the hits don't fall, he knows he adds value if his name is in the lineup.
"That's why I like to focus on my defense so much, too," Peters said. "I think it's being valued more and more now in baseball, and I think it just helps you, it helps the team, really. It's sneaky. It's not always the flashy plays too. Getting to the ball, getting to a 20 percent [catch probability] play without diving doesn't make the highlight reel, but helps the team a lot too. I'm just trying to do little things."
The efforts that make difficult catches look routine do sneak up on you, but a sizzle reel of Peters' best work make it seem like there was some hints of his defensive ability hiding in plain sight.
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Similarly, Jacob Gonzalez may not have seemed like a player to watch in spring, and was cut from big league camp three weeks before the season started, but sort of had a notion that he was on the right path even after his .204/.310/.293 showing at Triple-A Charlotte the year prior.
"I guess I always knew I was good; good enough to be here," Gonzalez said. "So I figured I just needed to figure things out, and luckily we did."
First and foremost, Gonzalez's work with Ryan Fuller to overhaul the weight transfer in his swing took place in January, prior to camp opening. Gonzalez describes his current swing setup as a happy compromise with his body's inclination to sink into a crouch as he loads, and the organization's effort to keep his weight in his back leg. The left-hander's new upright, laid back stance is simultaneously aimed at presetting his weight in his back leg, and also giving him space to sink into a crouch without hunching over and striding forward too far.
He may have only slugged .278 in 18 Cactus League at-bats, but Gonzalez set a new personal record for the hardest-hit ball of his career in spring (he's since broken it again in Charlotte), and found himself clearing the fence to left-center in batting practice, and knew something had changed. Moreover, even by the time he met up with Fuller in January, Gonzalez had already discovered something that had his gears turning.
"Pretty much every year in pro ball besides this one, I was trying to figure out how to line myself up with the pitcher perfectly," Gonzalez said. "Because when I would stride toward the pitcher, my hips would sway back and I would lose space from over the plate and it would be all arms swinging. At the end of last year, last two weeks, I decided to just stride closed just a little bit. It allowed my hips to line up perfectly and then it slotted everything else good. So I knew at the end of last year I was on the right path to finding something. I had the whole offseason to work on it and then I met up with Fuller and we combined it."
That sense of long-term progress has stuck with Gonzalez, who recently suffered through an 0-for-28 slump while trying establish himself in the majors, before going 8-for-19 with three of his four extra-base hits as a big leaguer in his last five games. Fuller, along with the Sox major league hitting coaches also monitoring the situation, had an idea of what was off with Gonzalez as they returned from getting swept in Detroit.
It was the hip thing again. The fix he had uncovered more on his own had slid out of place.
"Obviously went through a little drought hitting-wise, but I never felt like I was overmatched," Gonzalez said. "[Derek] Shomon and Joel [McKeiethan told me, and Fuller -- this is probably what was wrong. I was twisting my hips too soon, so that when I was coming out, they were late. I couldn't get all the way around. They were like 75 percent there when I was making contact instead 100 percent turned. I made a little adjustment and hopefully it keeps up."
There's a different element of this work now that is unusual for an established rookie that's endured a nearly two-week hitless stretch, and just for Gonzalez's pro career history in general: he's trying to get back to something he's already shown he can do before, rather than trying to find a new level.
""It was really just going back to how I started the season," Gonzalez said. "I just slowly started getting more turned without realizing it. So I was just getting back to how I used to hit earlier this year."
